Heather A. Rogers
Quality of Working Life in the Circular Economy: the Case of Self-employment in the Repair Sector
Rogers, Heather A.; Deutz, Pauline; Ramos, Tomas B.; Jonas, Andrew E.G.
Authors
Abstract
Establishing a circular economy is assumed by some definitions to include social benefits such as employment opportunities; however, research beyond quantitative job creation projections is only recently emerging. While the repair sector is well-established, it has been suggested that increasing circularity implies significantly expanded demand for this service. This article uses five case studies of repair workers, based on semi-structured interviews, to explore self-employment in the repair service sector. Findings indicate that the stresses of work in the circular economy are similar to those of other fields, with self-employment offering opportunities both for job satisfaction and additional pressures. Research needs to give more consideration to the social implications of a circular transition—work may be a necessity for a satisfactory life experience (for most people), but it is under-ambitious to assume that having work is sufficient to achieve that, or should be the limit of ambition for a sustainability transition.
Citation
Rogers, H. A., Deutz, P., Ramos, T. B., & Jonas, A. E. (2024). Quality of Working Life in the Circular Economy: the Case of Self-employment in the Repair Sector. Circular Economy and Sustainability, https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-023-00343-5
| Journal Article Type | Article |
|---|---|
| Acceptance Date | Dec 27, 2023 |
| Online Publication Date | Jan 13, 2024 |
| Publication Date | Jan 1, 2024 |
| Deposit Date | Jan 27, 2024 |
| Publicly Available Date | Jan 29, 2024 |
| Journal | Circular Economy and Sustainability |
| Print ISSN | 2730-597X |
| Electronic ISSN | 2730-5988 |
| Publisher | Springer |
| Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1007/s43615-023-00343-5 |
| Keywords | Circular economy; Quality of working life; Repair; Self-employment; Social sustainability |
| Public URL | https://hull-repository.worktribe.com/output/4526581 |
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Copyright Statement
© The Author(s) 2024.
Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article's Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
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